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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act includes a new public sector equality duty (the ‘general duty’), replacing the separate duties on race, disability and gender equality. This came into force on 5th April 2011.

The new general duty covers the following protected characteristics:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender Reassignment
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race - including ethnic or national origin, colour or nationality
  • Religion or belief - including lack of belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

It applies to marriage and civil partnership, but only in respect of the requirement to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination.

Strategic Equality Plan

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is pleased to introduce its Strategic Equality Plan for the period 2020-2024. The purpose of the Strategic Equality Plan is to improve equal opportunities within our community in service delivery, employment, commissioning, leadership and working in partnership.

The activities in the Action Plan of this Strategic Equality Plan clearly show our strong commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote equal opportunities and good relations between people visiting, living and working in Merthyr Tydfil.

As a Council, we have a duty to tackle and challenge discrimination and disadvantage so that people feel safe from harassment and everyone has access to high quality services. This Strategic Equality Plan will help us to ensure that we focus on the positive outcomes for people in Merthyr Tydfil and that our services are accessible and delivered effectively and efficiently.

Our Equalities Vision for Merthyr Tydfil is “a place where diversity is valued and respected and everyone can participate, flourish and have the opportunity to fulfil their potential free from discrimination and prejudice.”

The Council will work towards achieving this Vision through our role as a community leader, service provider, commissioner and employer, and we will work in partnership to reduce inequalities and to improve the well-being of the County Borough.

The Council will use its leadership role to promote equality and diversity and share ideas and good practice with partners and other service providers. We will continue to refine and develop our services, including respective monitoring systems, to help us gain a better understanding of our staff and the wider local communities and to enable us to meet everyone’s diverse needs.

Socio-Economic Duty (31 March 2021)

The Socio-Economic Duty places a responsibility on the Council to actively consider (‘pay due regard’ to) how we can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by Socio-Economic disadvantage when making strategic decisions.

The duty gives us an opportunity to do things differently and put tackling inequality genuinely at the heart of key decision making. The overall aim of the duty is to deliver better outcomes for those who experience Socio-Economic disadvantage.

The duty will be a key mechanism in supporting the most vulnerable in our communities, and will be extremely important when we recover from the current crisis.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

Here at Merthyr Tydfil Council, we value diversity in our workforce and consider ourselves to be an Employer of Choice. We are committed to promoting and integrating equality of opportunity into all aspects of our work. We welcome applications from everyone and encourage applicants from all groups and backgrounds to apply and join us. We are strongly committed to eradicating discrimination in the workplace and ensure that no unlawful discrimination occurs in the recruitment and selection process on the grounds of age, disability, sex, race, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, religion or belief, gender identity and expression, and pregnancy and maternity.

Disability Confident

Since 2018, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council has been a Disability Confident Committed Employer – one of the 18,000 employers across the UK to join the scheme. We help to play a leading role in changing attitudes for the better by making opportunities within the Council more accessible for all.

Through Disability Confident, thousands of employers are helping to:

  • challenge attitudes towards disability
  • increase understanding of disability
  • remove barriers to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions
  • ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council have now achieved the highest status as Disability Confident Leader. We continue our work to help positively change attitudes, behaviours and culture to champion equality as outlined in our current Strategic Equality Plan and Healthy Organisation Strategy. This ensures that we remain committed to championing and undertaking core actions for providing opportunities for disabled people so that they can fulfil their potential and reach their aspirations.

If you would like to find out more about Disability Confident scheme then please visit https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/

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© Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council